Wednesday, February 25, 2009

John Denver would be ashamed!

Marriage began in the heart of God, and He designed it perfectly, for one man and one woman. A husband, a wife, a family. The building block of every community, every culture, every race, every nation. Governments have recognized and uniquely protected marriage for more than 2,000 years, so families can pass life to the next generation.

In West Virginia however, there is currently no clear definition of marriage as only the union of one man and one woman, yet marriage has a public status, and in most states is protected in law. Marriage between a man and a woman is held up as the ideal in all of civilized society because of its profound stabilizing influence on our culture, as well as the important economic benefits of strong and intact families.

But today that ideal is under and unrelenting attack, and same-sex marriage in West Virginia is a closer reality than you may think. 30 states have already passed constitutional amendments defining marriage, but activists outside our state are aggressively targeting the remaining 20, including West Virginia. Working tirelessly to redefine marriage away from God's design, to favor the desires of adults over the needs of children, for the naturally balanced model of a mother and a father.

The push for same-sex marriage has produced an historical crisis for the Church. Today in courtrooms across the country, in decisions as recent as last month, our constitutional guarantee of religious liberty is going toe to toe with an aggressive social agenda, and religious liberty is losing.

Judges in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut, have arbitrarily redefined marriage and religious freedom. And virtually every area of ministry is coming under legal attack. Threatening our ability to freely and legally follow the faith. Church day care, faith based marriage counseling, Christian adoption agencies, religious schools, Christian businesses, doctors, professionals, para-church ministries, even the church, its clergy and lay leadership. Each is a growing battleground for promoting same-sex unions against church teaching, even individual conscience, with the full weight of the law standing against the faithful.

With alarming swiftness, these sweeping changes are moving from the courtroom to the classroom. In many schools today teachers are being ordered to stop using the words "mother" and "father." Father's Day celebrations are not observed, and the very concept of motherhood is abandoned to political correctness. Across the country, elementary school children are being taught to equate homosexuality with heterosexuality, and incredibly a parent's right to object to this indoctrination is becoming legally impossible.

In West Virginia, same-sex advocates could easily launch the state and its churches into legal chaos. They know that what was done in California was never intended to stay in California. A weekend trip to San Francisco for a West Virginia same-sex couple, plus a pro-bono ACLU attorney, could easily become a nightmare for marriage in West Virginia. In fact, a currently pending same-sex adoption case here, could effectively allow 5 unaccountable judges in Charleston to alter the Biblical definition of marriage for all of West Virginia. It's time to legally define marriage now, before costly litigation makes it politically and practically impossible.

West Virginians should define marriage, not judges under pressure to be progressive. West Virginians have an opportunity to take a stand for God's design, but only if elected officially will allow a vote in 2009, and West Virginians clearly desire to preserve the definition of marriage as one man and one woman in our state constitution. What's also clear, is that to pass a marriage amendment in West Virginia this year, the Church must lead. Pastors and their congregations must be willing and committed to defending God's design for marriage.

Please, pray about your active involvement at this critical moment in our state's history. Some of the things you can do include: Pray for marriage in West Virginia. Meeting personally with your delegate and state senator. Share with them your concerns about religious freedom and the moral definition of marriage. Ask for their support to allow the people of West Virginia to decide on marriage, not unaccountable judges. Pray for them, and remember that it is the Church's calling to speak truth to power, so power will speak the truth.

Your involvement matters, voting and involvement in the public square is central to being salt and light, and bearing witness to the truth. 2009 is West Virginia's best opportunity to take a stand for God's design. The time to preserve the definition of marriage in our constitution is now. One man. One woman. That's marriage.

www.wv4marriage.com

First of all, marriage is a civil contract, not a religious one, just to get that canard out of the way.

Now, I went to the wv4marriage website, and under the section "Stand4Marriage Sunday" section, there is an option to click on "resources," which leads to a list of PDF's. I know from the Florida4Marriage website that the pastors resources section often contains the more sinister Biblical content, so I clicked on the one that said "Full text message for pastors." And it delivered - in spades.

One point of note before we begin. At the end of the document it says "-END," and then says this:

A pastor for 20 years and a pioneer leader in the values voter movement, Dr. Kenyn Cureton, former Vice President for Convention Relations for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, currently serves as Vice President for Church Ministries with the Family Research Council in Washington, DC.

So I am assuming that Dr. Kenyn Cureton is the author of the document, and will be referring to him as such throughout this post.

That said, let the flames of hypocrisy begin...

From the video: "Marriage began in the heart of God, and He designed it perfectly, for one man and one woman. A husband, a wife, a family."

Clarified further by the wv4marriage website:

What is the divine pattern, God's original intention for marriage and the home? Go back to Genesis, the book of beginnings. For example, Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Aren't you glad God created Adam and Eve, man and woman?

What they always neglect to mention, is that God's perfect design for marriage and family included incest. Adam and Eve and their children were the only humans on Earth, simple math.

God's perfect design for marriage and family = advocacy of incest.Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve = advocacy of incest.

Unless of course God changed his mind...--------------Again: "Marriage began in the heart of God, and He designed it perfectly, for one man and one woman."

I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.

Well He "allowed" it alright, and according to the Bible, He also condoned and approved of it.

Or did He change His mind on that one too?---------------And my all time favorite tack - attempting to hide one's endorsement of mass murder.

The Word of God, which does not err, is abundantly clear about homosexuality. Leviticus 18:22 says: "You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable." Leviticus 20:13 says: "If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination..." Those are severe statements.

The FULL text of Leviticus 20:13 is thus: If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

And just in case you weren't sure about his sincerity on that one, he clarifies:

Some say: "Well, that's Old Testament, but Jesus never said anything about homosexuality." I would disagree. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

Some say: "Well Christians don't restrict their diets like they did in the OT Law, why should we pay attention to restrictions against homosexuality." It is true. We don't keep kosher. Why? Because Christ's death on the cross not only provided a way for sins to be forgiven, including the sin of homosexuality, but it also rendered obsolete the dietary, ceremonial, and sacrificial laws (see Hebrews 8:13). Yet the principles of the moral law remain in force. The moral law calls homosexuality an abomination [and deserving of death]. Jesus said: "I didn't come to change that."

So the "moral law" -- that includes having we gay guys put to death -- "remains in force," unlike those pesky dietary, ceremonial and sacrificial laws.

Also, I read the entire chapter of Hebrews 8, and nowhere did I find the quotation "I didn't come to change that," let alone quoted by Jesus specifically.

He goes on:

Equally severe is God's own version of the Extreme Makeover of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed in a hail of fire and brimstone primarily because of this sin (Gen. 19).

Let's take a look at "this sin" of Sodom and Gomorrah, the pith of which we can find specifically in Genesis 19: 4-8:

Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-both young and old-surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."

So Dr. Kenyn Cureton, the author of this propaganda piece, considers, or at least wants pastors across West Virginia to believe that adult same-sex consensual relationships are the equivalent of gang rape, and to be silent about Lot, the hero of the story, who willingly offered up his virgin daughters to be gang raped in lieu his stranger-guests.

That's some darn tootin' morality you got there, Dr. Cureton.

And I just love it when they pull this little trick:

In fact, Jesus basically condemned homosexuality by affirming the divine pattern for marriage. In Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-9, quoting from Genesis 1 and 2, Jesus said that marriage is between one man and one woman.

And now for what Jesus says immediately after those texts:

Matthew 19:9: "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

Mark 10:11: He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.

"Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived: no sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom. Some of you were like this..."

Dr. Kenyn Cureton: While as many as 2 out of 3 Americas are opposed to "gay marriage," homosexual activists and their allies have looked to the Courts to further their destructive program. Take a look at their successes in the legal arena. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the nation's remaining Sodomy laws.

What a tragedy, our relationships are no longer criminal.

The word Sociopath comes to mind. They have a distinct advantage over most of us, they have no conscience. It really is all just a game to them. And the non-thinking masses just follow their lead.

1 comment:

I always have found it funny how the militant fundamentalists pick and choose which Old Testament dictates are moral. The dietary rules certainly were considered moral laws by the people who espoused them.

The answer really is for people to get over religion in general. Religion is the main cause of bigotry, war, environmental destruction, poverty, and disease epidemics.